Syria seems to be adding a sinister dimension to the sectarian tensions unleashed by the destructive US invasion and the disastrous 10-year occupation of Iraq. Developments in Syria are casting a shadow on all neighboring countries but nowhere as menacingly as in Iraq because the occupation authorities had destroyed or weakened everything that kept Iraq as a functioning state. With the result that Iraq is now witnessing a level of violence not seen since the last sectarian war in early 2008. More than 1,000 people were killed and 2,258 others wounded in May, making it the deadliest month since the sectarian slaughter of 2006-07. The vast majority of the casualties were civilians. Car bomb blasts and suicide attacks are on the rise. There are ominous signs that this could be the beginning of a trend toward even worse violence through the summer if some urgent measures are not taken. During the US occupation, there was a third party to play one sect against the other to perpetuate their rule. All were exploiting a dangerous vacuum created by the US decision to banish Ba'ath party members from government jobs and public life and to disband the Iraqi Army. President Barack Obama may claim that the US left Iraq with our “heads held high.” Sen. John McCain, one of the cheerleaders of the war, may assert that “history has already made a judgment about the surge” of troops in Iraq in 2007. But the fact is that internecine strife and violence became a part of Iraqi landscape after the US invasion, with bloodshed and fear defining every aspect of life in that country. “Iraqi political leaders must act immediately to stop this intolerable bloodshed,” says Martin Kobler, UN envoy to Iraq, expressing concern at the new surge in violence. Unfortunately, Nouri Al-Maliki is yet to convince Iraq's minorities or its neighbors that he is the prime minister of a country, not the leader of a sect. To make matters worse, he is exercising authority and centralizing power in ways that belie American claims that Iraq is now a “democracy” unlike in the days of Saddam Hussein. Maliki's security agencies continue to round up minority leaders inviting charges that he is using terrorism as a pretext to destroy or neutralize political rivals. This has made the Sunni minority restive. They were already seething with anger after getting short-shrifted at the hands of the post-Saddam Hussein dispensation. The reluctance or failure of the US occupation authorities to work out a stable power-sharing arrangement complicated the situation. Now add Sunni-Shiite tensions, fueled by the civil war in Syria, and you get a highly explosive mixture. Maliki recently warned that a victory for Syria's rebels will spark sectarian wars in his own country. This was an uncalled for remark. As the prime minister of the country, he should try to defuse the situation, not to say or do anything that would further destabilize the region. If Iraqi politicians must act to stop the bloodshed, as UN's Kobler urges, Maliki should take the lead. He has once again proved that he is not equal to the occasion, confounding Iraq's tragedy. Unless the UN and Arab League do something to bring the warring factions to the negotiating table, civil war may return to Iraq, making an end to the Syrian violence all the more difficult.
